The Wicked King by Holly Black science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsThe Wicked King by Holly Black

The Wicked King by Holly Black science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsThe Wicked King (2019) is the second book in Holly Black’s THE FOLK OF THE AIR series. The first book, The Cruel Prince, and a supplementary novella, The Lost Sisters, introduced us to Jude and Taryn, mortal twin sisters who were brought to faerie after their parents were murdered by Madoc, a former general in the Court of Elfhame who is now raising the twins as his own daughters. You need to read The Cruel Prince and, if you’d like some additional background, The Lost Sisters, before reading The Wicked King. This review will have some spoilers for the story up to this point.

At the end of The Cruel Prince (here’s where spoilers for that book start!) Jude pulled a fast one on Madoc and all the fae. She arranged for Cardan, the cruel prince of the title, to be crowned king so that she could protect her little brother, Oak, from that fate. But because she had trapped Cardan into vowing obedience to her for a year and a day, Jude is actually calling the shots behind the scenes. Nobody knows this except Cardan and Jude.

Cardan, the wicked king of the title, is wicked indeed. While he revels in debauchery, Jude is running the kingdom and enjoying the power. Maybe too much. She is not looking forward to the day when Cardan’s geas is over and he gets his power back. She must figure out how to position herself to her best advantage before then.

Another threat to Jude’s power, and to the entire kingdom, comes from the queen of the undersea who appears to be covertly communicating with Cardan’s jailed brother, the prince who thought he’d be taking the throne when his father died. It’s obvious they have some plans to try to overturn Cardan’s rule. A third threat comes from an unknown traitor who is close to Jude. As she navigates all the old and new dangers in the Court of Elfhame, Jude must also try to control her feelings for Cardan. It’s a tense love-hate relationship for both of them.

The Folk of the Air (3 Book Series) by Holly BlackThe Wicked King is an exciting installment in the FOLK OF THE AIR series. I liked it better than The Cruel Prince. It’s action-packed with palpable danger on every page. I still found Jude’s angry personality to be exhausting (as I mentioned in my review of The Cruel Prince), but she has a reason to be that way. I just wish it weren’t quite so intense and relentless.

I had a hard time accepting Jude’s feelings for Cardan. The guy is a total asshole and I wanted to slap Jude for the way she felt and acted toward him sometimes. (E.g., “I look at his treacherous mouth and imagine it on me.”) As a middle-aged mother with a fully developed prefrontal cortex, I found Cardan decidedly not sexy. But this is a Young Adult story and it’s got to have a bad-boy romance, I suppose. I just hope the girls reading it will not be pining for a guy like that. If so, they’ll be just as unhappy as Jude is.

An obvious question is: why does Jude stay in faerie? She hates everything about it. She’s miserable all the time and constantly in danger. There’s really no reason for her to stay and she’d be a lot happier and healthier if she returned to the mortal world and lived with her big sister. So far this question has not been satisfactorily answered for me but I guess it’s not unreasonable to assume that Jude’s just not thinking quite right, especially when influenced by all those fae folk.

There’s a shocking twist at the end of The Wicked King (or, maybe not so shocking if you’re aware of the next book’s title, which I’m about to mention in the next sentence) and then another one right after that. I wish I had the third book in hand, but The Queen of Nothing isn’t out yet. Expect it in November. I’ve already pre-ordered the audiobook.

The audio versions of the FOLK OF THE AIR series are fabulous. Hachette Audio is producing them. The Wicked King is 10.5 hours long and quite entertaining.

~Kat Hooper


The Wicked King by Holly Black science fiction and fantasy book and audiobook reviewsFairyland is a dangerous place, but Jude, a human kidnapped by a fairy warrior and raised there, has carved out her own place as an influential advisor to the reluctant king, who also appears to love her, to the disgust and trepidation of them both.

Wheels without wheels within wheels turn, making them both unhappy. Is there any way out of this?

~Terry Weyna

Published in 2019. You must be strong enough to strike and strike and strike again without tiring. The first lesson is to make yourself strong. After the jaw-dropping revelation that Oak is the heir to Faerie, Jude must keep her younger brother safe. To do so, she has bound the wicked king, Cardan, to her, and made herself the power behind the throne. Navigating the constantly shifting political alliances of Faerie would be difficult enough if Cardan were easy to control. But he does everything in his power to humiliate and undermine her even as his fascination with her remains undiminished. When it becomes all too clear that someone close to Jude means to betray her, threatening her own life and the lives of everyone she loves, Jude must uncover the traitor and fight her own complicated feelings for Cardan to maintain control as a mortal in a Faerie world.

Authors

  • Kat Hooper

    KAT HOOPER, who started this site in June 2007, earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience and psychology at Indiana University (Bloomington) and now teaches and conducts brain research at the University of North Florida. When she reads fiction, she wants to encounter new ideas and lots of imagination. She wants to view the world in a different way. She wants to have her mind blown. She loves beautiful language and has no patience for dull prose, vapid romance, or cheesy dialogue. She prefers complex characterization, intriguing plots, and plenty of action. Favorite authors are Jack Vance, Robin Hobb, Kage Baker, William Gibson, Gene Wolfe, Richard Matheson, and C.S. Lewis.

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  • Terry Weyna

    TERRY WEYNA, on our staff since December 2010, would rather be reading than doing almost anything else. She reads all day long as an insurance coverage attorney, and in all her spare time as a reviewer, critic and writer. Terry lives in Northern California with her husband, professor emeritus and writer Fred White, two rambunctious cats, and an enormous library.

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